Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to multi-textured animal treats and particularly to multi-textured animal treats having different textural components that stay together for an extended period.
Description of Related Art
There are many pet food products on the market. The pet food products can be in a variety of shapes and structures such as kibbles, biscuits, rawhide products and meat emulsion products. Typically, these pet food products are homogenous in that they are usually made from the same materials throughout the product. Even pet food products that appear to be made from different base materials are usually made by providing the same base materials with different colors so as to give the pet food products a multi-component appearance.
The pet food products can be in a soft, hard or chewy form to achieve a variety of different objectives. Hard or chewy pet food products can be used to provide healthy and strong teeth in pets as they are chewed. However, the textures of many hard and chewy pet food products are often unappealing and unpalatable. For example, extruded dry pet foods are typically provided in hard lumps and have a dry, dusty appearance. Soft pet food products may be used to supply a specific nutritional component in a more readily palatable form, but do not promote strong teeth in the pets to the same extent that hard pet food products do. Providing a single pet food piece having a soft and hard component can overcome these problems.
Although hard pet food components and soft pet food components may be sold together as separate pieces (e.g., kibbles and bits), there are no satisfactory multi-textured pet food products formed entirely in one piece currently on the market. This arises because the hard pet food component and the soft pet food component are usually made from different materials that will not remain attached to each other for long periods of time without the two components becoming unstable and separating from each other. When this happens, it defeats the purpose of making a single multi-textured pet food product in the first place.